JB Group first Indian co to sponse women tennis tournament

AHMEDABAD: PAES and Mirza told the world that there’s more to Indian sports than cricket. Now it’s the turn of Indian corporates to step out of the cricket pitch and serve an ace on foreign courts. Now, for the first time, an Indian corporate will don the prestigious mantle of being the title sponsor for a top world event for women — a tournament considered precursor to the grand slams.

JB Group, a leading diamond player based in Surat, will sponsor the top tournament to be called JB Group Classic to mark the 15th year of its entry in Hong Kong. The Group with Rs 12,000-crore foreign operations would be the first Indian entity to become the title sponsor of a tennis tournament. JB Group Classic will see participation from five among the top 10 tennis players including Maria Sherapova, Venus Williams, Anna Ivanovic, Anna Chakvetadze among others.

Indian Inc has mostly confined itself to international tournaments held within the country for corporate sponsorships. Sunfeast Open and Kingfisher Open are some of the top tennis tournaments that have found Indian sponsors. Hong Kong Tennis Patron’s Association (TPA) would organise the event between January 2 and January 5 at Victoria Park with the support from image maker Canon, sports goods maker Fila, airliner Cathay Pacific, energy player Caltex and logistic major UPS.

It is considered to be a prominent tournament since the leading ladies of the game would hit the circuit for Grand Slam soon after JB Group Classic in the first month of the calendar year.